Last day at home, back to work tomorrow. So ive done some cooking this morning. I have been buying the new magazine Something Sweet, which i was hoping was going to be about just making sweets. But it also includes cakes...so i made some strawberry and white chocolate cup cakes and decorated them using a lace stencil. Never used a lace stencil before. I used food colouring to paint over as i hadn't got any powder, which is what the magazine used. Also used a hydrangea mould from a previous magazine.

Also made some flapjacks, found a website that sells food cheaply..www.approvedfood.co.uk  3 boxes of sainsbury's flapjack mix for 99p   These were dated dec 13.....as it was only oats and dried fruits i thought it would be pretty safe.

( Approved Food is the largest online retailer of short dated and residual stock food and drinks. .

The majority of our stock is short-dated or past its best before date we are able to buy in large 

 quantities and pass considerable savings on to our customers)

Crafty Creatives box 20....this months box is silk painting....sorry to say this will be my last box, apart from the specials. As i said last month the format has changed and i can really justify nearly £20 for something i will proberly only use once. Anyway here it is......

 Inside the box were 2 pre-printed silk squares

A larger piece of silk, 4 paints and backing paper

 Instructions

A leaflet advertising the one of spring box, which i have ordered
and the important notice that the next box will more expensive, ( the last 2 boxes i have had at the previous price as i was an existing customer)

  Salt...to sprinkle over the wet paint for a different effect.

And one of the finished silk's.

Our road during the ongoing floods, luckily we are above road level so we are lucky. 

Been up to St Albans to visit my son, who's up there working at the moment. Farmers market day, wow what a market. Bread, cheese, honey and meat. Loads of pheasants and rabbits. Then we came across exotic meat stall and found some Zebra and Kangaroo. So just had to buy it.  The verdict after cooking was Zebra was best, sweet and delicate. Kangaroo was very steak like and more meaty. But if offered i wouldn't say no to either.
The stall also had Ostrich, which we have had before and love it. There was also Venison and springbok.

Just been over to Hobbycraft to spend my xmas vouchers and came across Boodles. www.avecuk.com/boodles  So my new crafting project for this year is crocheting Boodles. You have to use a wooden crochet hook, called a bamboodle, its a super soft textile yarn. So look out for pictures coming soon of the finished bag.

First attempt at marbling, needs more practice. The red colour sunk for some reason. Think I'll use a larger container next time as I couldn't fit in the card properly. #craftycreatives

Crafty Creatives box 18 theme was handmade.  The kit was a pincushion which I made, using a button from a previous kit. Bit tricky because I hand sewed it. www.facebook.com/craftycreatives

Homemade Granola  works out to about 10p a portion. The recipe is from http://agirlcalledjack.com  Its lovely this is my second batch, we have it on yoghurt..yum yum.

My new toy,  a Halogen oven. (Xmas present) The instruction book included was rubbish so have been watching youtube videos all day. Need to buy a Lid holder as it gets extremely hot. Doesnt include one, apparently none of them do which seems strange. Going to try it out tomorrow when i have an empty house and no distractions.

Art card, water floater and colours, instructions and cards, material and heart for decorating.

Crafty Creatives box 19

Well here it is, the long awaited new style box.  All previous boxes have had  a theme with lots of different crafts inside. But as of this year  2014 the boxes are changing to 1 theme.
The first box this year is Marbling. Not impressed i'm afraid to say. But will give it a go.

My most recent attempt at shoe cakes. Biscuit sole with a chocolate finger heel.

Lemon and chocolate cup cakes.

1st attempt at felting.

I subscribe to Crafty Creatives a monthly craft box. http://craftycreatives.com/blog/www.craftycreatives.com This box contained a felting kit. My first attempt at a sheep.